The present wheel chair used in sports such as basketball and racing are merely adaptations of existing hospital type wheel chairs and as such are not truly adequate to the tasks for which such wheel chairs are to be employed. The frames are not sufficiently strong to run into a wall at five to six miles an hour which is common in wheel chair basketball, are not sufficiently light weight to permit fast maneuvering or acceleration for both basketball and racing and do not lend themselves to quick replacement of damaged parts and do not provide in a collapsible wheel chair the strength or lightness required in a sports type wheel chair. There are collapsible wheel chairs, but they do not provide lateral stability or strength as is required in a wheel chair that, particularly in basketball, may be hit hard from the side. Also, the hospital chairs do not protect the wheels or the spokes of the wheels or permit rapid replacement of damaged parts which are important requisites in particular in a basketball type wheel chair. Further, the existing wheel chairs do not permit the operator to change seat position readily which may be desirable for different uses of the chair particularly if the operator is to employ the chair for sports and non-sport applications.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rugged, light weight and quickly disassemblable and assemblable wheel chair for use in various sports events.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a sports type wheel chair which may be quickly disassembled to provide two frame halves each half comprising a main wheel and a front or guide wheel.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a wheel chair with forwardly extending side members considerably elongated to provide flexibility in the presence of front end impact to thereby lessen the danger of damage to both the operator and the wheel chair and to provide flexibility to permit four point contact in the presence of uneven terrain and absorb impact from proceeding over bumps.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an elongated frame for wheel chairs to concentrate weight on the rear wheels to increase maneuverability of the chair and decrease the incidence of forward tipping of the chair.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a wheel chair having cambered rear wheels to increase the wheel base and protect the operators hands.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an adjustable width wheel chair.
An object of the present invention is to provide a combined floor protector and anti-tip device mounted below the foot plate of the chair.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide seats and backs which permit change of the pitch, depth and width of the seat and taughtness, angle and width of the back of the seat.